BURY boss Alan Knill refused to blame his players after the Shakers suffered their first League Two defeat of the season on Saturday.

Exeter's 1-0 victory at Gigg Lane, courtesy of Richard Logan's strike, took the gloss off Bury's best league start in 60 years.

But instead of ranting and raving, Knill was in a philosophical mood after watching his side dominate proceedings following the visitors' early opener.

"I thought we played pretty well, to be fair," he said. "The key is to not concede, but after seven minutes we gave them something to hold on to - and they did.

"We had plenty of chances but that final pass or final shot just wasn't there for us - sometimes you have days like this.

"We had enough of the game to get something out of it. We didn't manage that this time but I can't fault the effort of the players."

Saturday's loss was in fact Bury's first league defeat in 13 games, including last season, when Knill steered the Shakers to safety after succeeding Chris Casper in February.

This term he has already led Bury to the top of the table for the first time in 11 years, although they have now slipped to fourth place.

Achievement

However, it seems Knill has had time to reflect on how big an achievement it's been, turning the Shakers from relegation candidates into high-fliers in just seven months, and he refuses to let Saturday's defeat ruin the feel-good factor at Gigg Lane.

"My job was just to improve the team, instil a work ethic, and so far we've done that - we've got to do it over a season though," he said. "It is frustrating but we can't be too despondent. We just have to take it on the chin and move on.

"One loss in 10 is pretty good and we'd have taken fourth now at the start of the season. Over 10 games it's not a fluke that we're fourth in the league, it's because we've played well."

Logan got in behind David Buchanan to open the scoring after Adam Stansfield flicked on Jack Obersteller's left-wing cross.

Exeter midfielder Ryan Harley twice went close but, otherwise, it was all Bury, with Elliott Bennett, Brian Barry-Murphy and Andy Bishop testing keeper Paul Jones with long-range strikes.

Mike Jones sliced a close-range effort wide as the Shakers laid siege on the Grecians' goal before Bishop went closest to finding the equaliser when he fired agonisingly wide late on.

"Even though we came up against a 4-5-1 again, we still created a lot of chances," Knill added.

"Our approach play is good, it's just the killer cross or the shot that we've got to get better at. We've got to learn from it because it's a pretty tough month coming up."

BURY: Brown 6; Scott 6, Futcher 7 (Cresswell 87), Sodje 6, Buchanan 6; Bennett 7, Dawson 7 (Baker 69, 6), Barry-Murphy 7, Jones 7; Bishop 7, Morrell 7 (Hurst 69, 6). Subs: Racchi, Belford.

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